ECO summit

The 13th Economic Co-ordination Organisation (ECO) summit held in Islamabad ended, as expected, on an upbeat note. The unanimously approved Islamabad Declaration vowed: "commitment to the purposes and principles of the UN charter including in particular the respect for political independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity of states, development of friendly relations among nations, and pacific settlement of disputes... shared their assessment of the constantly evolving global and regional environment and new developments that present multiple challenges and opportunities." The operative words in the declaration were 'commitment' as opposed to agreement and 'sharing' rather than on unanimity of views.
The ECO is the sequel of Regional Co-operation Development which was founded in 1964 and had three members: Pakistan, Iran and Turkey. Twenty-one years later, by late 1985 Iran, Pakistan and Turkey formed the ECO and it took the demise of the former Soviet Union for seven new members to expand its membership to include Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan too joined at the time when the Taliban held sway and Pakistan was one of three countries in the world that recognised their government. Northern Cyprus and Organisation for Islamic Co-operation (57 members) have been granted an observer status.
While any grouping of nations cannot ignore individual national interests and commitment to national objectives yet despite the passage of decades the ECO has not evolved into a viable organisation that benefits all member countries through time bound action plans that seek to translate potential benefits into reality. And in this context, the 13th summit held in Islamabad was no different and highlighted potential benefits that would accrue from identified areas of co-operation that would, if translated into action plans, benefit all the members and the region. These areas of co-operation included: doubling the current trade levels in the next three to five years, financing projects on regional development, promoting green energy, measures for sustainable growth, operationalize and commercialise ECO intra-regional transit networks, and the important role of small and medium enterprises. A new item, no doubt proposed by the Turkish president and supported by Iran and Pakistan, was the need to support measures to immediately address threats to democratic governments, including coup d'etats aimed at overthrowing democratically-elected governments and constitutional orders of the member countries and the foreign occupation of territories of member states, including economic strangulation which undermine the legitimate democratic governments in pursuing their socio-economic development and programmes.
Be that as it may, the win-win regional projects including the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline, conceived decades ago has yet to be completed and the Iran-Pakistan pipeline too remains unfinished. Regional tensions, including the inability of the Afghan government to bring peace to its own country, exacerbated by superpower interventions in the region, have been partly responsible for the failure to fully implement these projects.
Surprisingly the country that is not a member of the ECO and which has yet to be extended an invite to become a full member notably China was tacitly acknowledged as the country most engaged in enhancing regional connectivity with direct implications on trade expansion in the region. President Xi Jinping of China has begun to invest in reviving the old Silk Road, at an estimated cost of one trillion dollars, as a means to enhance regional connectivity with the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) identified as its small sub-component.
In the context of Sharif administration's almost exclusive reliance on the CPEC ushering an era of development in this country and with obvious contribution to regional connectivity led to the corridor getting much display during the summit. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif while addressing the inaugural session of the summit stated that "no other project better symbolises Pakistan's conception of win-win co-operation through connectivity" and added that co-operation must not be limited to energy, transport and trade but extend to agriculture, education and science and technology. However, for other countries to be interested in the CPEC the Prime Minister needs to ensure greater clarity and transparency in CPEC projects.